The Fourth Power

A Grand Strategy for the United States in the Twenty-First Century

Gary Hart

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has lacked a grand strategy to replace "containment of communism." In this vacuum, the Bush administration has used the "war on terrorism" as an excuse for unilateralism, preemption, and hegemony. America is at a crossroads between empire and republic. In this bold new book, Hart refutes preemption and empire, and argues for the fourth power--the power of principle--and the restitution of a principled American republic.

The Fourth Power

A Grand Strategy for the United States in the Twenty-First Century

Gary Hart

Description

Today, even as America asserts itself globally, it lacks a grand strategy to replace "containment of communism." In this short, sharp book, Gary Hart outlines a new grand strategy, one directing America's powers to the achievement of its large purposes. Central to this strategy is the power of American ideals, what Hart calls "the fourth power." Constitutional liberties, representative government, press freedom--these and other democratic principles, attractive to peoples worldwide, constitute a resource that may prove as important to national security and the national interest in this dangerous new century as traditional military, economic and political might.

A bracing vision of an America responsive to a full spectrum of global challenges, The FourthPower calls for a deeper understanding both of the threats we face and the profound strengths at our disposal to fight them.

The Fourth Power

A Grand Strategy for the United States in the Twenty-First Century

Gary Hart

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Strategy in an Age of Revolution2. Our Principles as an Element of Strategy3. America's Large Purposes in the New Century4. Security in the Twenty-first Century: A Larger Understanding5. Principled Engagement: Expanding Security through Opportunity6. The New Security and the Use of Military Power7. Who We Are: Temptations of Empire8. Restoring the Republic...and Its PrinciplesConclusionAppendixNotesIndex

The Fourth Power

A Grand Strategy for the United States in the Twenty-First Century

Gary Hart

Author Information

Former U.S. senator Gary Hart (D-Colorado) is author of thirteen books and a leading expert on national security and American foreign policy. A longtime member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, an international lawyer who has traveled to the former Soviet Union over 100 times, Hart recently completed a three-year assignment as co-chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century, a body that before 9/11 both warned of a massive stateside attack and recommended the creation of a homeland security department. Hart has taught at Yale, University of California, and Oxford University, where he earned a D.Phil. in Politics in 2001.

The Fourth Power

A Grand Strategy for the United States in the Twenty-First Century

Gary Hart

Reviews and Awards

"The Fourth Power [offers] sweeping recommendations for how America should orient its foreign policy in the 21st century. Hart's timely central argument an alternative to both the neoimperialist impulses of the Bush administration and the creeping Kissingerian realism of the Kerry campaignis that the traditional military, political and economic powers of American foreign policy should be constrained by and imbued with a fourth power, America's unique principles. To those who advocate a crusading foreign policy of preemption to 'rid the world of evil' and spread democracy--even at the point of a gun--Hart argues that the first casualty would often be America's moral authority: 'There is a vast difference between advocating, as I do, that America live up to its own
principles and advocating, as the Bush administration does, that the rest of the world live up to America's principles.'"--The New York Times Book Review

"Hart offers a conceptual framework in which a 'fourth power--the power of [our] principle[s]' must be added to traditional American economic, political and military power as a major strategic asset internationally.... In their current formulation, [Hart's ideas] could prove important as soon as next year. An active Kerry for President campaigner, Hart could be a senior appointee in a Kerry administration." --The Washington Post Book World

"The Fourth Power is a well-reasoned, trenchant extended essay about the place in the world for the United States of America.... His manifesto makes so much sense, a cynic is tempted to say, that it will never become the foundation of U.S. government behavior."--The Denver Post

"Extraordinarily thought-provoking. Hart writes with great clarity and directness, yet with profound sophistication... Bush himself and his principal foreign policy advisers would be well served by reading and contemplating this book.... It provides definitions, a vocabulary, for talking about the future, both foreseeable and unforeseeable. And right now, this is not being done well on either side of the national political debate."--The Baltimore Sun